Post Office Ltd pay offer “insulting” says union

The UK’s Communication Workers Union has rejected the offer of a 1.5% pay rise for its administrative and supply chain members working at Post Office Ltd. The union said negotiations over the new labour deal would run aground unless Post Office chiefs increased their “appalling” offer.

The CWU represents about 1,500 admin and supply chain staff at the state-owned operator of the UK post office network.

The company’s below-inflation offer was put forward at the end of June but the union described it as “derisory” and “insulting”.

CWU national officer Andy Furey said: “The offer, which covers the 12-month period from April 2014 fails to even match the March RPI figure of 2.5%.”

Last year the CWU staged the longest strike campaign in its negotiating history, which led to a 3.9% basic pay increase this year for employees in the Crown post office network — the network of post offices owned and operated by Post Office Ltd rather than franchisees or subpostmasters.

Furey said the offer made for admin and supply chain staff was “vastly inferior” to the deal agreed for Crown post office staff.

He said meeting Post Office negotiators, his team had criticised the “contemptible” offer, which did include a one-off £200 lump sum payment for all grades. Further negotiations are taking place this week.

“We reminded them of our intent to conclude an agreement by the end of July and stressed the serious implications if this did not happen,” he explained.

“They will have to significantly improve upon the paltry offer made yesterday to avoid a break-down in negotiations.”